Anyone have suggestions on how to handle the mold / mildew damage? I am thinking I am scraping the entire artwork and manual portion of every case? How would you guys recommend cleaning the actual disks before I use them on my personal system?
Here is what the artwork and the manuals look like after they were carefully peeled from the cases from most of the lot.
My dad used to work in mold removal, so here is some basic info -
As for labels/manuals - it is almost impossible to remove mold/mildew from paper, so these are most likely garbage. If one has a small bit, you may be able to rip that part off, however from the pics a lot of it is not salvageable.
As for the discs, this will depend on how bad the damage is, however start by removing any clumps or physical pieces of mold that you can. For the residue or light spotting, some rubbing alcohol (possible diluted with water - i'm not sure how discs handle this stuff) is how to remove it from various surfaces including glass and metal.
Finally - and this is important, make sure none of it is black mold. If it is dark green, you are fine as that is 99% non toxic, however black mold can be deadly and self replicating, meaning it will reproduce on its own forever - like hazmat suit stuff, so just make sure everything is the green kind.
NOTE - this stuff is not common, and it doesn't look like it from the pics (just very dark green). It is also unlikely that these would be so lightly covered if it was actually black mold - still, better safe to double check.